Maverick McNealy earned his first career PGA Tour win this weekend, sinking a five-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to clinch the RSM Classic. He beat out Daniel Berger, Nico Echavarria and amateur Luke Clanton by just one stroke.
After three rounds, McNealy topped the leaderboard at 14-under alongside Vince Whaley, with several other golfers trailing by two. Meanwhile, Mackenzie Hughes, Michael Thorbjornsen, Patrick Fishburn and Berger all sat tied for third at 12-under, with Thorbjornsen and Fishburn also vying for their first career PGA Tour win.
As a former Haskins Award winner, McNealy has always had the potential to win on the PGA Tour but hadn’t managed to place better than second until his 142nd start. Even this time, it came down to the final day—McNealy took the lead after a 33 on the front nine but fell to one shot behind after a bogey on the 14th hole. By the time they made it to the 18th fairway, Clanton and Echavarria were one shot ahead of McNealy and Berger.
Both leaders missed their approach shots left and set up testy par putts with their third shots. When Clanton and Echavarria bogeyed, they dropped to a four-way tie, providing Berger and McNealy with an opening. McNealy took the opportunity, hitting two good shots on 18 to give himself an achievable putt to win. Making up for missed birdie putts on 15 and 17, McNealy sank the putt and immediately let out a scream before hugging his caddy, his brother Scout.
“I’m shaking right now, I feel like I could run a marathon. Absolutely exhausted, but the adrenaline is unbelievable,” McNealy said in an interview after embracing his wife on the 18th green.
With this win, McNealy has earned an exemption through the 2026 season and secured spots in The Sentry, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, The Genesis Invitational and his first Masters.
Amateur Luke Clanton continued his impressive play on the PGA Tour by finishing tied for second, his fourth top-10 finish of the season. Clanton, a junior at Florida State, is the top-ranked amateur in the world, who also tied for second at the John Deere Classic after finishing 10th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and fifth at the Wyndham Championship. After this tournament, Clanton has amassed 17 PGA Tour University Accelerated points; if he can get to 20 points by the end of this year’s college season he will gain PGA Tour membership. Whenever he decides to turn pro, this 21-year-old from Florida is sure to have a bright future.
As the last official PGA Tour event of the year, the RSM Classic was the final chance for players to get into the coveted top 125 spots of the FedEx Cup points list, earning their 2025 PGA Tour exemption. Many notable players were coming to St. Simons to lock up their PGA Tour card for next year, like Joel Dahmen, who came into the week sitting at 124th.
On Friday Dahmen sank a slippery par putt to make the cut. After shooting an even-par round of 70 on Saturday, he needed a good round on Sunday to secure his card for next year. Dahmen delivered with a round of 64, making a crucial six-foot par putt on the last hole to secure his spot at 124 on the FedEx Cup points list. Berger sat at 127 coming into the week, but with his second-place finish vaulted up 27 spots to get his exemption.
Golf content creator and former PGA tour winner Wesley Bryan was the bubble boy, sitting right at 125. But rounds of 70 and 73 were not good enough, and he was surpassed by Henrik Norland who had two rounds in the 60s on the weekend.
The 2024 PGA Tour season is now complete, with a break until The Sentry in Hawaii kicks off the 2025 season right after New Years. There are two unofficial PGA Tour events to look forward to before the end of year, though: The Hero World Challenge hosted by Tiger Woods (which features 20 of the top male golfers in the world) and The Grant Thornton Invitational, a co-sanctioned event between the PGA and LPGA that pairs a player from each tour together for three rounds.
